Two Pints of Lager and a Bag of Crisps

December 22, 2011 9:19 PM

The world's first flavoured potato chips were produced in the late 1950s by the Irish company Tayto Crisps. The flavour: Cheese and Onion. Salt and Vinegar, which is now perhaps the the worldwide archetype flavour, followed shortly thereafter. In one place or another and at one time or another, almost every flavour has been set to sliced and fried potato: In Canada, Ketchup and Dill Pickle are common varieties; In Bali, people snack on Blueberry or Lemon Tea chips; the Soy Sauce-flavoured Pringles in Japan are funky; In South Africa, Fruit Chutney and Flame-Grilled Steak are among the standards; and in the UK, Walkers crisps apparently had a go at finding the worst possible crisp flavour.
posted by 256 (97 comments total)

A few weeks ago I fixed vandalism on the Pringles wiki page with listed haggis and balut as Pringles flavors. Man, that page is vandalized a lot.
posted by mreleganza at 9:38 PM on December 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

When vacationing in Maine, my sweetie and I made a deliberate stopover into Canada just to get flavors of chips that you couldn't in the USA. The USA has the most boring flavors of chips. Where's the Buffalo Chicken here in the states? Where's the vindaloo chips? We are so far behind the potato chip flavoring curve. Sour Cream and Onion just isn't cutting it for me anymore.
posted by not_on_display at 9:38 PM on December 22, 2011 [3 favorites]

For me, Old Dutch are the only potato chips.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:39 PM on December 22, 2011 [7 favorites]

the worst possible crisp flavour

I have long thought that since the artificial flavours in processed food are so very artificial, for one month a year the potato chip people and the ice cream people should swap flavours: potato chips could come in. Rocky Road and Butterscotch
Ripple, while ice cream could go for Hickory and Bacon or All Dressed.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:40 PM on December 22, 2011 [2 favorites]

To emphasise the horrifying nature of it all, the flavours are Cajun Squirrel, Crispy Duck, Onion Bhaji, Fish and Chips, Chocolate and Chilli, and Builder's Breakfast.

What? No Chocolate and Pickle? Slackers!
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:40 PM on December 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

A bag of Lays Ketchup chips is an integral part of my conception of heaven.
posted by selenized at 9:40 PM on December 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

This post conceived and composed while eating a whole goddamn bag of Dill Pickle potato chips and watching my wife play Skyrim. God, I missed Ketchup and Dill Pickle chips those three years we lived in Philly.
posted by 256 at 9:44 PM on December 22, 2011

The end.
posted by Token Meme at 9:46 PM on December 22, 2011

A few weeks ago I fixed vandalism on the Pringles wiki page with listed haggis and balut as Pringles flavors. Man, that page is vandalized a lot.

I'd almost believe those were real - on their site, they list "kebab" as a flavor in the UK. It's not listed in Spain section, but I swear I saw jamon pringles when I was there.
posted by LionIndex at 9:48 PM on December 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

For me, Old Dutch are the only potato chips.

Kettle Chips!

but yeah, I had no idea how repressed the American chip pallet was until I had this New York hipster guy come stay with me off couchsurfing.com about 4 years ago. He basically divided his time by raving about how great the crazy chip flavors are, and bitching about the cost of beer.
posted by mannequito at 9:48 PM on December 22, 2011

By the way, Walkers = Lays.
posted by Jehan at 9:49 PM on December 22, 2011

I beg everyone heading anywhere near Canada to bring back All Dressed chips. How they aren't here in the US is a major mystery.
posted by marylynn at 9:50 PM on December 22, 2011 [5 favorites]

I tried to get a packet of Gravy chips but missed out because they sold out too fast.
posted by unliteral at 9:50 PM on December 22, 2011

I wish you could get the Ruffles 'All Dressed' flavour in some sort of squeezable bottle. I'd put that on just about everything.
posted by Flashman at 9:50 PM on December 22, 2011 [3 favorites]

Voodoo chips? Sounds sacrilicious!

I just bought some ketchup chips today. There are some interesting flavours out there, like Tambori Ribs and Ball Park Hotdog. They're fun to try once in awhile, but I like to harden my arteries with the classics.
posted by Kevin Street at 9:51 PM on December 22, 2011

The best crisps ever are Niks Naks Scampi & Lemon. They're barely even classifiable as crisps and they stink up a room. But oh god, they're just too gorgeous for words.
posted by Jehan at 9:53 PM on December 22, 2011 [4 favorites]

I wish they'd made the People's Chip a regular flavour. It was awesome. Mmmm, gravy chips.
posted by andraste at 9:54 PM on December 22, 2011

Walkers crisps apparently had a go at finding the worst possible crisp flavour

When they ran the design-your-own-flavour contest here in Australia, one of the finalists was "Barbecue Coat of Arms" -- although it "did not actually contain any emu or kangaroo".

Anyway, it would be tough to come up with a worse flavour than Vegemite.

BLERGH.
posted by robcorr at 9:59 PM on December 22, 2011

walkers roast chicken crisp sammiches with mayo and brown sauce are an appallingly delicious slice of hellish delight

omg so hongray
posted by elizardbits at 10:04 PM on December 22, 2011 [2 favorites]

By the way, Walkers = Lays.

This may be true in some corporate sense, but it isn't true in terms of the chips themselves.

I'm a connoisseur of salt & vinegar chips from a long line of Canadian salt & vinegar freaks (we lived in the US for three years and used to bring back cases of them and Hawkins Cheezies every time we were back in Canada), and let me tell you, the Lays salt & vinegar chips they sell in Canada are passable, but Walkers salt & vinegar is the ur-chip. Much as it pains me to say it - mainly because those British heathens put malt (not white) vinegar on their fries - the UK's the salt & vinegar chip/crisp world champ. There's a little British grocery boutique here in Calgary that carries Walkers, and you've got to catch them within a couple days of a shipment if you want to get any of the salt & vinegar. With good cause.

Also: Ruffles all-dressed = ultimate hangover comfort food.
posted by gompa at 10:07 PM on December 22, 2011 [2 favorites]

This is pretty cool.

I love food. I've never heard of most of those flavors before. Any ideas how somebody in the States would go about trying them? Any trustworthy mail-order websites?

(I'm most interested in the Blueberry and Lemon Tea, and the Dill Pickle and Ketchup flavors. I hope it goes without saying that Cajun Squirrel is out.)
posted by hypotheticole at 10:07 PM on December 22, 2011

Oh, and the President's Choice piri-piri ruffles are totally worth your time and hard-earned money.
posted by gompa at 10:07 PM on December 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

This may be true in some corporate sense, but it isn't true in terms of the chips themselves.

I've had Lay's in the US and Thailand, and they taste pretty similar (if not better) than Walkers. My experience doesn't run to Salt & Vinegar, so may be they're hugely different. I personally think that Walkers is very middling stuff for the price. They might be still popular in England, but I avoid them if possible. Seabrook's is where it's at.
posted by Jehan at 10:12 PM on December 22, 2011

Hypotheticole: You can get Lay's Dill Pickle on Amazon.com for a healthy premium.
posted by 256 at 10:13 PM on December 22, 2011

You can get ketchup chips in some parts of the United States. When I lived in Ohio and Delaware, I would get these mamma-jammas all the time, and a cursory internets check indicates quite a few smaller US chip companies make ketchup chips.

And this is why when I go to the store, I am probably the most careful and thorough in checking the potato chip aisle, 'cause I'll be damned if I miss any new exotic flavor.
posted by mreleganza at 10:16 PM on December 22, 2011

Gompa, have you tried McCoy's salt & vinegar? Not the most vinegary of the s&v crisps, but seriously munchable.
posted by Flashman at 10:17 PM on December 22, 2011

Gompa, have you tried McCoy's salt & vinegar? Not the most vinegary of the s&v crisps, but seriously munchable.

Nah, but for reasons I can't fully explain but will defend to the death, salt & vinegar chips should not be ridged. Doesn't work. If the chip's got ridges, it does best all-dressed. Some riffs on barbecue work on a ridged chip - see the piri-piri chips mentioned above - but never salt & vinegar.
posted by gompa at 10:21 PM on December 22, 2011 [2 favorites]

The US has the least variety in Chip Flavors ever, seeing the devoted alive to just various permutations of chip flavor on display at Marks And Spensers was close to a religious moment ( lamb and mint? What? )

That being said you can't beat the US for either totally made up chemical frankenstien flavor ( Cooler Ranch) or the greasy, slightly rotten tasste of week old kettle chips.
posted by The Whelk at 10:22 PM on December 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

I distinctly remember the flavours 'Grape', 'Orange', and 'Cherry' sometime in the 70s.

And now we have Peppercorn Steak chips at Superstore.

We truly live in a golden age.
posted by mazola at 10:23 PM on December 22, 2011

Utz Crab Chips > anything.
posted by empath at 10:24 PM on December 22, 2011 [9 favorites]

I'm totally shocked to find that Tayto's were the first. Cheese and Onion were certainly the most poplar in the Ireland of the mid 70's when I arrived there as a transplanted Yank at the age of 10, but Salt & Vinegar remain my favorites to this day. Later on in Ireland and the UK of the early 90's all sorts of gastronomic horrors were attempted - roast beef and mustard being possibly the worst.

Having returned safely to the US as an adult despite these attempts on my well being, I have become very fond of the good old fashioned ready salted variety. Trips back to Ireland are fraught with difficulty, however, as there is no way that you can get that flavo(u)r over there. It's all basted turkey with stuffing and brussell sprouts or somesuch.

But they do have bacon-like-substance-taste-a-like, which is nice.
posted by Nick Verstayne at 10:24 PM on December 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also, while i love sour cream and onion, it is the most temperamental chip flavor in the world, it's so basic that everyone uses it, but no one does it the same way, so you end up with strange tasting trails at gas stations throughout Europe trying to figure out which sour cream and union chip is the * right* one.
posted by The Whelk at 10:25 PM on December 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

I really like the Lay's Kettle Cooked Jalapeno chips, too. Unlike a lot of Jalapeno, it's not just pure heat, it's got a nice green pepper-y flavor, as well.
posted by empath at 10:29 PM on December 22, 2011

My first meal in Iceland was chips and vodka, cause it was 3 am and nothing was open. The chips were a bit salty but okay.
posted by The Whelk at 10:32 PM on December 22, 2011

Calbee Pizza flavoured chips! Shrimp flavour and habanero flavour! And seaweed, omg.

OKAY time to go buy some artery-hardening goodness.
posted by zennish at 10:32 PM on December 22, 2011

And when I say poplar, I meant pupular. I do not in any way intend to suggest that Taytos taste like trees. Those guys have sued friends of mine.
posted by Nick Verstayne at 10:33 PM on December 22, 2011

Now you have me curious, so please enlighten me: what kind of flavor is "all dressed"? I'm picturing something like a fast food chain might put on a burger: mayo, mustard relish and ketchup. Am I right?
posted by cali at 10:36 PM on December 22, 2011

It seems worth mentioning that up here in Canada, President's Choice has been doing a crazy "World of Flavours" event with their potato chips, producing a number of internationally-themed varieties, including General Tao's Chicken, Spicy Piri-Piri, Sicilian Lemon Chicken, Sweet Chili Thai, Jamaican Jerk Chicken, etc, etc.

I for one am partial to their Buffalo Wing & Blue Cheese flavour, though.
posted by mek at 10:36 PM on December 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

Flavored potato chips! For those who hate the taste of salted and fried potatoes!

Thanks, I like mine "salt flavored". Seriously. In Europe, it can be difficult to find plain chips. I rarely want the flavored crap, it only makes me more thirsty than just salty. What's wrong with the lovely flavor of just salty chips?!
posted by Goofyy at 10:37 PM on December 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

cali, "All-Dressed" refers to an all-dressed baked potato, so the flavour profile is potato (the chip) + sour cream, cheese, bacon, onion, and often some strangely sweet god knows what. (Probably ketchup, you're right.)
posted by mek at 10:38 PM on December 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

Nick Verstayne: "I'm totally shocked to find that Tayto's were the first."

My Dad, who was a nipper in Dublin in the 1950s, told me years ago one of his favourite days to remember of his early life was his first few bags of salt'n'vinegar Tayto's (older Irish people will often just say "Tayto's" when they mean crisps). According to him, the original bags came with these little vinegar sachets (like soy sauce from Chinese restaurants now) and every bag was like a new taste adventure. You opened the bag and the sachet and sprinkled it in (which was, when you think about it, a logical step taken from the local chipper experience). Only after a few years there arrived the "English crisps" with the vinegar flavour baked into them. Eventually the Tayto's dropped the sachet.

I still remember my utter shock upon arriving in Manhattan during the mid-1980s and finding it virtually impossible to fine any crisps flavoured with anything other than plain salt or some weird tomato thing. It's become a little bit more civilised there since then.
posted by meehawl at 10:39 PM on December 22, 2011 [3 favorites]

Thanks mek! Sounds like potato skins, yum.
posted by cali at 10:41 PM on December 22, 2011

As usual, the rest of the world lags far behind the the USA when it comes to snack food innovation. Mere flavors are sooooooo 20th century. Doritos Late Night: Tacos at Midnight. Yeah. You heard me. Our chips don't just have flavors, they have a setting. Your chips have tense, but ours have aspect.

I can't believe you people limit the snack food experience to just the inside of your mouth!
posted by lefty lucky cat at 10:42 PM on December 22, 2011 [10 favorites]

256: Thanks for the link! I also found Lays Lemon chips on Amazon too!

So here's a list of Lays potato chip flavors. I found some flavors I didn't recognize and am intrigued by (including "balsamic sweet onion", "garden tomato and basil", and "Parmesan and Tuscan herb").

I also found a where to buy page on the Lays site. You can actually narrow it down to the flavor of chips you want and enter your zip code, and then Google Maps tells you what stores nearby sell it.

I was skeptical about how accurate it would be — maybe it just lists places nearby that sell Lays potato chips in general, and not necessarily the specific flavor I want? — but when I tried "garden tomato and basil", I got 2 hits near me. When I tried "dill pickle", I got none. (I haven't seen "garden tomato and basil around. Maybe I'm just not paying enough attention in the chip aisles.)
posted by hypotheticole at 10:43 PM on December 22, 2011

Kettle cooked chips have yet to jump the Atlantic, and they are usually not flavored, cause what would be the point of overriding that greasy, crunchy, faintly sour rendered fat kettle flavor?
posted by The Whelk at 10:48 PM on December 22, 2011

I like vegemite, I eat it regularly - but it does NOT belong in a potato chip.
posted by cerulgalactus at 10:54 PM on December 22, 2011

I already pimped Herr's in this thread, but these Steak and Worcestershire chips were impressive...they actually managed to successfully imbue the flavor of steak into it.

Since moving to Texas, and discovering that a slightly different array of chips exist here, I've become fond of Limon chips. To me, they don't taste like lime at all, but like salt & vinegar. So if you're in these parts and missing S & V, and are not too hard to please, they might be worth a shot.
posted by mreleganza at 10:59 PM on December 22, 2011

presidents choice general tsos chicken is also awesome
posted by PinkMoose at 11:04 PM on December 22, 2011

I love Herr's Ketchup chips, but my heart belongs to salt and vinegar.
posted by Splunge at 11:17 PM on December 22, 2011

Oh man, ketchup and all-dressed chips, particularly ketchup, were two of my major "home nostalgia" triggers when I was going to school in the States. Once, I was in the throes of major homesickness during undergrad, which for some reason culminated in me howling online about feeling alone because of my absolute inability to find ketchup chips.

I think it was about a couple of weeks later when boxes started appearing in the mail from Canada, containing nothing but packing peanuts surrounding a solitary bag of ketchup chips. Different brands, all Canadian. Not even sure where they all came from.

I'm now back based in Canada, but you can keep your manna from Heaven if I get to keep my mystery ketchup chips from the mail. :)
posted by ilana at 11:28 PM on December 22, 2011

From the Pringles wikipedia page:

P&G wanted to create a perfect chip to address consumer complaints about broken and stale chips, and air in the bags. The task was assigned to chemist Fredric Baur, who, from 1956 to 1958, created Pringles’ saddle shape from fried dough, and the can to go with it. Mr. Baur could not figure out how to make the chips taste good, though, and he eventually was pulled off the Pringles job to work on another brand.

Guess they're still working on that little problem.
posted by Splunge at 11:32 PM on December 22, 2011 [2 favorites]

Do Pringles actually get to be called "potato chips"? From what I understand, they're actually some sort of baked potato gunk that gets sliced up and deep-fried or something, about as natural as a hot dog.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:38 PM on December 22, 2011

I like vegemite, I eat it regularly - but it does NOT belong in a potato chip.

Strangely enough, though, marmite is is the greatest crisp flavour ever, and I normally can't stand the stuff.
posted by tallus at 12:09 AM on December 23, 2011

When I was growing up in the East Midlands in the 60s and 70s, Walkers Crisps were only sold within a 30-mile radius of Leicester. After I moved to London in 1976 I couldn't believe that it wasn't possible to buy Walkers Cheese & Onion crisps, which had the most sublime flavour. After Walkers became a UK-wide brand, the flavour changed and they're now a shadow of what they used to be. I still miss those crisps. :-(
posted by essexjan at 1:11 AM on December 23, 2011

According to him, the original bags came with these little vinegar sachets

I also remember Smiths Crisps which had a little blue paper twist of salt in them so you could add salt to taste. Many years later they were re-introduced to the market, but with a little tear-open sachet of salt, which just wasn't the same.
posted by essexjan at 1:13 AM on December 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

All must bow before the might of Japanese potato chips! Calbee makes awesome chips, an they release new flavors constantly. I still have fond memories of their gyoza/potsticker chips, where it only could you taste the flavors of the pork, cabbage, and spices inside, there was even the faint taste of the soy sauce, vinegar and chili pepper you'd dip the hypothetical gyoza in. Freaking heaven in a potato. And the Pringles flavors? Unstoppable wonder. The only problem is that flavors disappear just as fast as they are released. It's a never ending reminder of the ephemeral nature of joy in an all too capricious world.

I'd kill or die, though, for some chili-cheese Fritos. There's something wonderful about a foodstuff that you can still taste on your burps two days later.
posted by Ghidorah at 1:21 AM on December 23, 2011 [2 favorites]

England, and possibly the whole UK, seem to be the only places in the world that don't have Ruffles.

This has helped me lose weight.
posted by srboisvert at 1:36 AM on December 23, 2011

Charlie Brooker reviews Walker's World Cup crisps and the afore-mentioned worst crisp flavours ever.

Crispy Duck and Hoisin
A fairly accurate rendition, although if you close your eyes they taste like the standard Roast Chicken flavour might if the "chicken" in them had been killed with a hammer made of compacted sugar.

Scottish haggis
After a bad start, another step down. These tasted of nothing, yet somehow managed to make that "nothing" deeply unpleasant. It's like a small piece of fried potato failing to recall a repressed abuse memory while sitting on your tongue.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:26 AM on December 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

Apart from the salt and vinegar varieties, I'm not a big fan of flavored chips. This is received wisdom from my mom, who prefers plain chips. This is the same mother who has promised to kill me, her beloved offspring, if I ever gave her another three pound box of Utz lard-fried chips. Even though I said it was ok to split it with her sister.
posted by Purposeful Grimace at 2:37 AM on December 23, 2011

Why bother looking for ketchup-flavored chips when every store in the US sells chips...and ketchup? Then you can have that crisp, salty chip with a dollop of delicious, tangy ketchup. Two textures! More than two flavors! NOM!
posted by xingcat at 2:51 AM on December 23, 2011

Similarly, if you are in a bar you can ask to use the tabasco and worcester sauce to add dimension to the extortionate 50g bag of crisps you just bought. Zing and tang!
posted by asok at 3:05 AM on December 23, 2011

The last time my wife was in Japan, she brought me back some Calbee browned butter flavored chips. They really tasted like melted, slightly browning butter. I'm also intrigued by the French Dressing flavor they have on the same page.
posted by derMax at 3:32 AM on December 23, 2011

Gone are the days when you could walk down the street cheerfully snuffling through a pack of Smokey Bacon. Try that now and people will stare at you like you're shooting heroin directly into a genital vein.

Imagine the looks you get when you are actually banging dope into your crotch in public. Prudes, every one of them!
posted by Splunge at 4:01 AM on December 23, 2011 [2 favorites]

Back when I was is high school, we used to have a 2 hour gap between classes ans debate club, and none of us had cars, so we used to go to this absolute dive of a convenience store for dinner. They made surprisingly good falafel, but if you wanted chips or something on the side, you had to settle for the grossest off-brands. This is where we first discovered ketchup chips (acceptable) and, horror of horrors, sour cream and clam.. The memory of the smell from when someone dared buy them and open the bag has faded, thankfully.

Now all the stores have fancy flavored kettle chips, and while I thought I was forever done with chips after a period where my provided lunch had them every day, that was before rosemary-olive oil.
posted by cobaltnine at 4:32 AM on December 23, 2011

I have always thought in the back of my mind, cheese and onions.
posted by orme at 4:35 AM on December 23, 2011 [3 favorites]

In Japan I tried scallion pancake potato chips, probably by Calbee. The flavor included the soy-and-vinegar dipping sauce. Best chips ever.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:48 AM on December 23, 2011

Here in Argentina, the most sold kind are the plain, salted ones. I think they tried the vinegar and salt ones some years back and it failed miserably. There are only a few other kinds of chips for the minority tastes, right now I can barely get these in our local supermarkets: smoked ham, tomato and basil, parmisan, oregano, sour creme and cheese, chicken and lemon, ketchup. We are such a bunch of chip unsophisticates...
posted by Iosephus at 5:19 AM on December 23, 2011

There was a small local brand in or near Western MD (Gibble, I think) that made kettle chips that were so insanely good that all other kettle chips are merely poor reminders. The (often rather large) bubbles in the chips were frequently visibly full of oil.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 5:36 AM on December 23, 2011

I'm old enough to remember the glory days of chipland here in Canada when there was such a thing as Hostess salt and vinegar chips. Those chips were almost atomic. The flavour was so strong it would practically rip your mouth apart. Soooooo good. The closest you can come now is Miss Vickie's sea salt and malt vinegar, which are pretty tasty.

Big ups also to the PC buffalo wing and blue cheese flavour--deliciously close to an actual chicken wing experience. Just one example of the President's master plan to make me fat (and happy).
posted by Go Banana at 5:39 AM on December 23, 2011

I'm glad mazola remembers them, because even my best friends do not. The absolute, beyond-any-discussion-or-dispute WORST chip flavours ever produced anywhere on the planet belong to Hostess Cherry, Grape, and Orange potato chips. I mean, I'll try any flavour anything, but I don't think I got more than three chips into a bag of Cherry flavoured chips (and cherry candies were among my favourites) before I could take no more. It wasn't enough for me to throw the bag away, though. I dug a pit in the sand at Graham's Grove in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, about two feet down, weighed the bag down with a rock, and buried the remains.

There is no possible way Hostess had product testers back then. It's simply not humanly possible for someone to have tasted those chips and thought, "hey, not bad". I mean, they were instantly gag-inducing. There are flavours you think, eh, not for you but someone might like them. These were well beyond that. And I've had sour cream and clam chips, so that's saying something.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 5:47 AM on December 23, 2011 [2 favorites]

No, no, no. It's

Two pints of lager and a packet of crisps, please.

(Recorded by Splodgenessabounds, engineered & produced by an acquaintance of mine, one Mike "Megawatts" Robinson)
posted by kcds at 5:56 AM on December 23, 2011 [3 favorites]

Nthing Ketchup and Salt and Vinegar chips. When my sister and brother-in-law moved to Wisconsin to start a dairy farm, that was what they (well, he) missed the most. We used to bring a hard-sided suitcase, packed tight with big bags of Ketchup and Salt and Vinegar chips, with us when we went to visit.

I find Tayto brand cheese and onion crisps really pungent, they leave a bad taste in my mouth that no amount of beer will wash away. I will say, though, I learned to be the quietest crisp-eater ever trying to eat crisps in the middle of a traditional singing session.
posted by LN at 6:20 AM on December 23, 2011

There was a small local brand in or near Western MD (Gibble, I think) that made kettle chips that were so insanely good that all other kettle chips are merely poor reminders. The (often rather large) bubbles in the chips were frequently visibly full of oil.

Ew.




and yum.
posted by mreleganza at 6:50 AM on December 23, 2011

Utz Crab Chips > anything.

I gotta' go with Herr's for crab chips. Real Old Bay wins out.
posted by HumanComplex at 6:52 AM on December 23, 2011

Dressed All Over and Zesty Mordant. Magnificently NSFW. That is all.
posted by Kinbote at 7:33 AM on December 23, 2011 [2 favorites]

A Blog About Crisps is still going, when I see it pop up on my facebook feed it makes me laugh. My parents send me Taytos from Ireland every year around this time and they're still the best crisps around.
posted by jamesonandwater at 7:39 AM on December 23, 2011

In Oklahoma at least, a trip to a Mexican grocery store or convenience store reveals a completely different set of potato chip flavors, all made realtively nearby in the same factories that make the chips you find in regular grocery stores. I have never understood why they hide them away.
posted by Quonab at 8:09 AM on December 23, 2011

I saw marmite-flavoured kettle chips at an ethnic grocery store a a few weeks ago but decided not to buy them. I am now regretting this.
posted by janepanic at 8:13 AM on December 23, 2011

This thread is making me SO hungry.
posted by cider at 8:25 AM on December 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

I still remember the Old Dutch Mexican Chili flavour they sold up here in Canada int he 90s. So spicy and tangy. They were rippled. (sigh)
posted by hamandcheese at 8:41 AM on December 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

I've been having problems since I've moved with finding salt & vinegar chips. If I drive back to the other side of the state I can get them, but a 3-hour drive is a bit excessive for just chips, even if they are the clearly superior flavor.

Luckily the stores around here do carry the dill pickle, jalapeno, and garden tomato and basil varieties from Lays, so it's not a complete loss.
posted by rewil at 9:04 AM on December 23, 2011

Hey elizardbits: if you like chip sandwiches and plan to have a spinach dip-in-a-loaf of pumpernickel bread this holiday season, try my BEST SANDWICH WITH CHIPS EVER!!! Pumpernickel, leftover Knorrs spinach dip and a hefty quantity of chips crunched down inside.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 9:05 AM on December 23, 2011

Sidetrack: Dressed All Over and Zesty Mordant
posted by not_on_display at 9:26 AM on December 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

Tuna salad, barbecue potato chips on rye bread. Tuna salad, salt and vinegar chips on country white bread. Yum!
posted by Splunge at 9:32 AM on December 23, 2011

Miss Vickie's Black Pepper and Lime flavour are mind numbingly amazing.

I also have a fond memory of backs of chips that came with packets of ketchup, which I ate whilst living in Ecuador.
posted by Harpocrates at 10:39 AM on December 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

Walkers Prawn Cocktail. Happy, happy sigh.
posted by DangerIsMyMiddleName at 11:46 AM on December 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

There was a small local brand in or near Western MD (Gibble, I think) that made kettle chips that were so insanely good that all other kettle chips are merely poor reminders. The (often rather large) bubbles in the chips were frequently visibly full of oil.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 5:36 AM on December 23 [+] [!]

Ah, yes, Gibble's Nibbles. They're from Lancaster, Pennsylvania - a division of Martin's, who are famous for their potato rolls.

Their chips are amazingly good. Why are they so good? Well, that's not oil, per se - it's lard.
posted by kcds at 12:04 PM on December 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

My sister is a salt freak, and she still loss of the old President's Choice salt and vinegar chips (I believe they were in a purple bag). My theory is that they were taken off the market when it was discovered that if they didn't sell in two weeks the chips dissolved the bag.
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:17 PM on December 23, 2011

I should say "she still mourns the loss..."
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:19 PM on December 23, 2011

Well, Target's brand of Archer Farms potato chips is experimenting with flavors including buffalo wing, smoky bacon and cheese and of course, vinegar and salt. Get it while you can.
posted by jadepearl at 1:51 PM on December 23, 2011

I don't want to take the thread in a contentious direction but I just finished a bag of Hickory Sticks my parents sent me in the Christmas box. Also unavailable here. So, are they chip or not chip?

On Monday, I am meeting someone in a public square to procure some imported bags of All-Dressed chips. I feel so dirty!
posted by marylynn at 2:22 PM on December 23, 2011

Hickory sticks are not chips. In much the way that angels are not people.
posted by 256 at 3:59 PM on December 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

I can't believe there's been no mention of Zapp's Spicy Cajun Crawtator chips. Get some.
posted by sklero at 4:28 AM on December 24, 2011

Smith's Bovril crisps were the best when I was a kid in the '70s, as were Salt n Shake (where the salt came in a little blue packet so you could add it yourself).

Marmite is awesome, but Marmite crisps contain celery salt, and I loathe celery in all its forms.
posted by vickyverky at 3:02 PM on December 24, 2011

where the salt came in a little blue packet so you could add it yourself
I know this. We are old.
posted by unliteral at 3:57 AM on December 25, 2011

Marmite is awesome
I emigrated to Australia and became a Vegemite convert. It does happen.
posted by unliteral at 4:00 AM on December 25, 2011

I love vegemite as much as the next USAian, but really, this is part of your marketing campaign?
posted by not_on_display at 7:05 PM on December 26, 2011